


Barrier

by abetternameneeded



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:35:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25907443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abetternameneeded/pseuds/abetternameneeded
Summary: Alice gets frustrated with the barrier holding her prisoner
Kudos: 1





	Barrier

Alice Jones sat on the windowsill staring out at the sky and the trees. The silence surrounding her cut the air. She didn't like it. She often muttered her toys and the world outside her window. She could see the trees swaying in the wind, reminding her of the dances her papa used to show her. She could hear the birds chirping reminding her of the lullabies he used to sing. She rememebered the words. Sometimes she'd sing them to her toys. It helped her fall asleep. She couldn't take the quiet any more and so she glanced towards her toys and chattered. Sometimes her words didn't even make sense, not that they had to. Who would hear her? And her toys wouldn't judge. She sighed and gave a gentle touch to the barrier. Maybe she believed touching it enough might break it. Let her out of the prison she was in at no fault of her own. She'd been here since she was born.

Eventually she started to feel more and more alone. More desperate to be free. She'd always wanted to be free but when she'd had her papa at least he could make her feel better. But he couldn't any more. And so she stared at the sky and told Hatter and Mr. Rabbit what the stars in the sky meant. And she'd sit next to the window with its invisble barrier. The thing she culdn't see but what made her whole world a prison. And she'd touch it ever so gently. It'd whir and wrinkle reminding her that "No, Alice. You're trapped." Its sound and its colours and its movements taunitng her. She missed having someone that actually talked to her. Her toys talked all the time. But she gave them their voices. Sometimes she'd forget that she did.

Alice was so angry. It wasnt fair. Not that her life had ever been fair. She had been stuck here for so long. She knew how long but she hated to think of it often. And she wasn't one that had much hate to give. She had no one to take it out on. No where for the anger to go. No one could hear her as she screamed at the window. She wondered if she could force her way out of this. She'd always been so gentle. Knowing that hurting someone else was never the answer to her problems. Could she break the barrier? It wasn't the barriers fault, Alice admitted but it couldn't hurt to try. Alice knew she'd need strenghth. But she couldn't use an object, an object would go right through the window anyway. So she climbed onto the windowsill and instead of sitting down the way she always did she stretched both of her hands out ready to push them through the barrier. At the first contact it whirred and and wrinkled it's warning; but, she was determined and so she ignored it and tried to push through it. And then it pushed back.

The next thing Alice knew she had crashed into the stone floor of her tower. The barrier wouldn't let her get that close without making her stay put. She stared at it. "That wasn't very nice." she scolded it. As if it could understand her. She knew it couldn't but she hated the silence. And she was fighting back the tears as she realized she may never leave. May always be alone. Some of the tears were from the pain of landing on the floor. She sat there and stared back at the window. "Sorry for pushing you." she told the barrier. She had been a bit cruel to it. The barrier didn't create itself she admitted.

She got up and adjusted her dress back into the proper position and dusted herself off. The tower could do with a good sweep, she decided.

"The floor's a wee bit dirty," she told all the objects that would listen. She grabbed the broom and swept a bit.

She continued to gently touch the barrier for years. Sometimes getting angry enough to try to force her way through. It never worked. And when she was finally freed she didn't leave through the window that had taunted her so for all those years.


End file.
